Notre Dame football: Irish play confidence game

Notre Dame shows it can protect ball, take it away in win

Maybe Notre Dame's most negative play Saturday revealed its most positive improvement.

Football can be funny that way.

A communication gaffe between quarterback Everett Golson and left tackle Zack Martin allowed Navy's Keegan Wetzel to come free from Golson's blind side and bury him for an eight-yard sack.

Last year during the "season of the turnover," the ball would have squirted out, Wetzel would have grabbed it and returned it for a touchdown. This year, Golson secured the ball, took the loss, and lived to fight again.

Now that's a step in the right direction.

"I think you get what you demand, and we've demanded (a focus on ball security) since January," said Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. "All the times that we've gotten together with the media, we've talked about the emphasis on taking great care of the football. Even on the sack where Everett didn't see him coming, we talked at great lengths about how to protect the football.

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"You get what you demand. Our kids are really understanding how important it is to take care of the football."

And also take it away. On Saturday, it was Irish defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt who scooped up a Navy fumble and ran 77 yards for a touchdown.

In all, Notre Dame pounced on three fumbles.

"Last year, we finished with six fumble recoveries for the entire year," Kelly said. "Hopefully, we get that working in our favor, too."

The fine line that Golson, especially, has to walk is that of prizing the pigskin while at the same time not letting the fear of losing it leak into the way he conducts himself on the field. There is a certain bit of recklessness that allows Golson to do what sets him apart from everyone else in the Irish quarterback stable.

The objective: Controlled recklessness, may be the best way to explain it.

The circumstances of Saturday's blowout allowed Kelly to keep the wraps on a good deal of Golson's assets. He didn't have to run once. Lots of quick passes. Extending plays wasn't necessary. That will likely change this week.

Purdue, Saturday's opponent, is already dealing with the other end of that confidence spectrum. During the Boilermakers lopsided win over Eastern Kentucky, quarterbacks Robert Marve and Rob Henry (announced starter Caleb TerBush did not play after being suspended for violating team rules) were each intercepted once and fumble once. Purdue also lost a fumble on a punt return.

"I don't think we're on the brink of a ball-security issue," said Purdue coach Danny Hope.Five turnovers in the season opener (even though they were masked a bit by the victory) probably shouldn't be taken lightly. Just ask Kelly.

It has taken an entire off-season to pound the significance of avoiding turnovers into the heads of the Irish players.

Encouragement for the Boilers could come from the return of TerBush, who went the last 41/2 games of last season without being intercepted.

It's mechanics. It's knowing what's going on all over the field. It's decision-making. But the root of ball security comes down to confidence.

Kelly will make sure that Golson and Martin work out their communication problems. Kelly said there were technical issues -- footwork, body position -- as well as a slow thought development process in finding the open receiver, that contributed to the red-zone interception.

Those are all fixable. That's a good thing, in terms of the confidence it takes to hold onto the football.